N. Kumarjit (centre) at the news conference in Imphal on Monday. Telegraph picture
Imphal, Dec 4 : Members of the High
Court Bar Association, Manipur, today resolved to continue abstention
from work until concrete assurances were given by relevant authorities
to fulfil their demands.
Members of the Imphal bench of Gauhati
High Court have been abstaining from work since November 8 demanding
appointment of seven judges for a separate high court of Manipur and
also appointment of only Manipuris as judges.
The high court lawyers launched the
agitation as the Centre was planning to open separate high courts for
Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura anytime and also following reports that
there were moves of absorbing existing judges of Gauhati High Court for a
high court in Manipur.
The high courts are likely to be opened latest by January.
The bar association held a meeting today
to review its course of agitation and also assurances given by Supreme
Court judge A.K. Patnaik, in-charge of high courts in the Northeast, and
Union law minister Ashwani Kumar to look into their demands.
A delegation of the bar association led by its president N. Kumarjit met Patnaik and Kumar last week in Delhi.
“Today, we have reviewed the outcome of
the meetings in Delhi and we have decided that the assurances given by
the honourable Supreme Court judge and the Union law minister were not
satisfactory. So, we will continue our agitation for an indefinite
period,” Kumarjit told reporters after the meeting.
He said the association was planning to
intensify the agitation by mobilising support from Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh and the Chief Justice
of India. The delegation during their visit to Delhi last week tried to
meet the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The association is also planning to hold
sit-ins and rallies to mount pressure on the Centre and the Supreme
Court to fulfil their demands.
The resolution noted that the Chief
Justice of Gauhati High Court, A.K. Goel, “failed to feel the pulse” of
the High Court Bar Association, Manipur. “He is not taking interest in
the affairs of Manipur and he is acting as if he is not the chief
justice of Manipur,” the resolution said.
Kumarjit said Manipur has four quotas for judges in Gauhati High Court. At present, there are only two judges from Manipur.
Gauhati High Court has a sanctioned
strength of 24 judges. Though Assam had 11 quotas, now the number of
judges from Assam had gone up to 15, Kumarjit said.
Khidem Mani Singh, a senior member of the
bar association, demanded an inquiry into the manner in which judges of
Gauhati High Court are appointed.
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